The flames of Hope
by Cookie Seller On The Dark Side
Summary: The child of Aphrodite has fallen, the son of Hades guilty, the son of Jupiter distraught. But Nico has a plan, a soul for a soul, but Piper just can't come back from the dead, she has to pretend to be another person? Prophecy proves "Amelia" is important, the flames of hope are under her protection, but when Earth offers her back her old life and boyfriend, how can she resist?
1. Prologue

**_Do NOT worry, the other chappies will be MUCH longer! (This is just the prologue!)_**

_The door to the lounge burst open, and a sweating Nico collapsed on the ground._

_Jason was going to ask if he was OK, but his heart interrupted._

_"Where's Piper?" He asked._

_Nico gave him a pitying and grave look, and lost conscious._

* * *

_Jason sat at Nico's bedside, urging him to talk about Piper. It had, after all, been two days._

_"Nico," He said softly. "Where's Piper?"_

_Nico had tears spurting down. "I'm a disappointment, to my dad, to Percy and Annabeth and to Piper, I'm a failure!" He cried._

_"What do you mean, Nico?" Jason asked._

_"Dead, the lot of them!"_

_Jason gulped. "Nico, Percy and Annabeth aren't dead, neither is your father- he's a god- and Piper's __definitely__ not dead."_

_Nico howled. "But Jason, she is! I failed her!"_

_"What!" Jason shook Nico's arms. "What did you say?"_

_Nico sobbed. "Piper's dead."_


	2. Amelia Porter

**It started with Mc'Donalds... **

Jason was miserable, to say the least, and apparently so was Nico. Nico was always muttering inaudible things in his sleep, and waking up in the middle of the night and screaming stuff like; _I'm sorry! _Or, _Forgive me! _But the last thing Jason lest expected Nico to say, after all that, was: "Where's the nearest Mc'Donalds?"

The guy must've been real stressed. That was all Jason could make out, anyhow.

Meanwhile, Nico was Hijacking the fridge.

"No, no, no. Ghost's don't like Pepsi as much... ah, coke!"

Silently, he stuffed a ten-coke-pack into a black knapsack which he held on his back.

"Nico!" Called a distant voice. "We've reached Mc'Donalds!"

Quickly he ran down the hall and skidded out the door.

"Finaly, we thought you were gonna miss out on me showing Hazel what a chicken nugget is!" Leo joked half-heartedly.

Hazel blushed. "Yeah, I still don't know what it is."

Nico flew down the street, ignoring the messy pavements; covered in wrappers, chipped bricks, branchs, rocks, the odd banana peal. Yet Nico was indifferent, a dirty pavement meant nothing to him at the time, he had to get a happy-meal!

When they reached the store, Nico waited impatiently in the queue for what seemed like ages~

"What would you like to order?" Asked a painfully jolly voice.

"Finally!" Nico sighed. "That took forever!"

"Nico," Hazel nudged him. "We've only been waiting two minutes."

"ADHD, Hazel, ADHD."

Speedily Nico ordered a double cheese-burger and fries.

_Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock! _Screamed every wrist watch in the place. _TICK TOCK!_ Every noise reminded him that every second wasted called another monster to the cafe.

"Here's your order." The man gave a fake smile, "enjoy."

Nico began jogging out of the cafe, when Jason and the others- mainly Leo -called; "hey Nico, where are you goin'?"

Nico blinked back tears. "To fix things the wrong I've done."

* * *

"Hurry up there, will you?" The man called.

Piper was in a long room, it had black walls, black floors, black chairs.

_Bad as the dentist's waiting room! _Piper thought to herself.

The man wore an italian silk tuxedo and a bow tie was settled on his neck.

"Come on, I have orders for an immediate passage to Elysium!" The man impatiently burbled.

Piper shrugged, and turned to see the exit was locked tight. _Dang it._

She began slowly walking up to the desk when a familiar voice called her.

"Piper, turn around!"

"Nico?" Piper asked uncertainly.

She turned to see the exit was open and Nico was outside of it.

He motioned for her to come, and obligingly she followed.

As soon as she had left the door, Nico pushed a dracaena through the door and into the dreary waiting room.

Once Piper reached earth, dark spots floated around her eyes, and she slowly watched her world go black.

* * *

_Piper was in a large marble coliseum-sized palace, it was stuffed with strewn statues of a beautiful woman._

_"Aphrodite." She muttered._

_Suddenly, a clanging noise echoed and Piper spun round._

_"Piper!" The woman from the statue cried. "How's the love life?" She winked._

_Piper gave a disgusted look to her mother. "Horribly, I'm dead amn't I?"_

_Aphrodite huffed. "Not for long, such a love story should not be so short, besides, as a member of the seven you hold an important part on defeating Gaea." Aphrodite's gaze hardened. "You hold the key Piper, but don't be let into bribes and threats, all in all you are probably the most important of the seven."_

_Piper scowled. "No Jason's much more-"_

_Aphrodite's form shuddered, and she sighed. "I'm afraid Zeus will not let me speak to you much longer, dear."_

_"But-"_

_The coliseum collapsed and the goddess of love disappeared._

* * *

"Piper, Piper, PIPER!" Nico yelled.

"What?" Piper grunted. "What, wait, I'm dead, amn't I?"

Nico brightened a little. "Not any more, a soul for a soul, that dracanae-"  
"What," Piper joked. "A dracanae's soul is worth _my_ soul?"

Nico paled visibly. "It was in a rush-"

Piper smiled. "I'm just kidding."

She paused. "What about your dad, Hades? He'll want me dead again!"

Nico sighed. "You're gonna have to pretend to be someone else, your new name's Amelia Porter, from the NYC, mother's called Anna, dad's called James." He handed her a mirror. "Your mum took care of a disguise."

Piper's eyes widened, she had long caramel colored hair and perfectly tanned skin, her eyes now a sapphire blue but her figure was the same as before.

Piper immediately raised an eye-brow. "We can tell the others, right?"

Nico frowned. "That's the problem, not even Gaea knows you're alive again, no gods' but your mother knows it. No one can be trusted, Hades has spies listening to the romans, he is suspicious of them."

Piper let out a small sob. "But Jason and I's relationship-"

Nico sadly interrupted. "You will have to start over again."

Piper had changed cloths into a purple t-shirt and navy colored jeans, she wore big black boots. When they reached the Argonaut II, Leo was there.

"Hey Nico- who's the lady?" He called.

Nico rolled his eyes. "This is Amelia Porter, godly parent unknown."

Piper gave Nico a _seriously? _look.

Leo swung down the rusty ladder and shook Piper's hand. "I'm Leo."

Piper had to fight back the urge to wrinkle her nose and joke, _unfortunately, yes you are Leo._

They were led into the ship, and Leo offered to give a tour to the lovely lady.

"No I'm fine, could you- er -introduce me to the others?" _Could you bring me to Jason? _Was silently added.

Once they reached the lounge, they found the others lying about or speaking to each-other, devising plans.

Leo and Nico introduced her until they reached Jason, in which she said she could introduce herself. Jason's face was tear-stained and pale, the vision of melancholy. He was sitting on the sofa.

Piper cleared her throat. "Hi, my name is Amelia Porter."

He just looked at her, apparently reminded of his past love, and exited.

Yet the seven words he whispered as he left could just about be heard, _Why did you leave me, Piper, why?_


	3. The truth

Nico knew what was coming, but he didn't know why it had to be during lunch.

_Bang!_ Nico was forced to look up, as Jason slammed his hands onto the table.

"What. Happened. To. Piper?" He hissed.

Nico looked up slowly, meeting the boy's eyes, which were filled with tears.

"Please, I can't live on not knowing the truth!" He pleaded.

Nico sniffed stiffly. "I'm sorry, but I don't have the strength to explain, or the heart."  
He stood up to go, but Jason pinned him down.

"Please," He begged. "I need to know!"

Nico watched Jason wearily, and began to explain.

_"Hey Nico, who do you think would win in a eating contest, Percy or Ceberus."_

_Nico snorted. "Percy of course."_

_"No offense to him," Piper coughed. "But where does he put all that food?"_

_"Into his fighting." Nico smiled._

_Piper shifted anxiously. "I hope they're OK, what being in Tartarus and all."_

_"I bet they are, Percy has the strength for it. Besides," He grinned. "Annabeth will stop him doing anything stupid."_

_Piper gave a weak smile. "Right."_

_"Why don't we split up," Nico offered. "Get rid of the 'little problem'."_

_Little problem: Monsters._

_"Sure." She murmered awkwardly. "Err, I go left?"_

_"It's the lady's choice." Nico shrugged._

_"Left." Piper confirmed, as she walked down the left forest path._

_"- 'k." Nico answered, heading of to the right._

_Under the bushes, into the trees, between the twigs, hidden in holes, Nico seemed to be looking everywhere. It was not long 'till a painfully fearful scream echoed through the forest._

_"Piper!" Nico gasped, and launched himslef forwards._

_It seemed to take forever to reach the location the scream had been coming from, and green mist filled the air, causing Nico's eye-sight to blur momentarily. After the clouds of mist grew see-through, Nico noticed a dracanae, waving her hands at him and caling,_

_"Nico!"_

_Nico ran forward, and used all his strength to stab the best._

_"Where's Piper!" He yelled._

_The monster looked confused, and gave him a bewildered look. "What, Nico?"_

_Nico blinked, recognising the voice, but it was too late, he slashed at the creature._

_It screamed, but didn't evaporate. The mist slowly left, and the monster disapeared, replaced with a young girl._

_It was Piper._

Nico stopped. "I'm sorry Jason."

Jason had his fists clenched, and his muscles were taut. "So," He said in a dangerously calm voice. "You killed Piper."

"Jason, I-" Nico began.

"You were right," Jason screeched. "You are a disapointment, but not to Piper, but to me. You swore you'd take care of her!"

Nico glared daggers at him. "You don't know how much I tried, how much I suffered!"

Jason gave him a stiff frown. "You didn't lose your girlfriend."

Nico rolled his eyes. "I don't have or know what it's like to have a girlfriend."

"Exactly."

The door opened and Amelia came in, she seemed surprised to see Jason and Nico glaring at each-other.

"Er- am I interrupting something?"

"Yeah, yeah you are." Jason muttered coldly.

"Sorry." Amelia muttered.

Jason glanced back at Nico, whose fists were clenched. "Leave." Jason ordered.

"But-" Piper began.

"GET OUT!" Jason roared. Fire gleaming in his eyes.

Amelia started to back out the door, and closed it quitely, a small sob escaped her mouth as the pitter-patter of her converse pattering against the floor as she ran away.

Jason collapsed on the chair. Sniffing, he covered his face with his hands.

Nico then realsied something,

The fearless, brave, kind, son of Jupiter,

He was crying.

**Sorry, I'll be updating soon and this will be a short chappie.**


End file.
